Vanessa Skotnitsky a.k.a. Wild Empress is a talented self-taught photographer, artist and single mom from Abbotsford who currently lives and works in Chilliwack, British Columbia. Vanessa focuses on portraiture, she shoots amazing conceptual, creative and fine art portrait photography. ” I approach my creativity with a solemn heart, and take comfort in fantasy worlds with balance of light vs dark,” she says. Skotnitsky takes self-portaits, which is perfect for her introverted self. She also uses her children as subjects frequently, or as often as they are willing depending on their mood. “I love moody conceptual images the most but I love so many genres I can’t seem to limit myself to my favorite”, Wild Empress explained.

Mostly using photography as my outlet but I find myself drawn to all forms of art and creation. Fairy tales, legends, myths, nightmares, daydreams, childhood beliefs and fears all whisk me away. My first step in creating an image is to determine the overall atmosphere I want to invoke. I then pull together props, wardrobe location and model(s) to create the scene. I transform my photographs in post-processing to take the scene to a whole new world.